UPDATE:Lowdown on East Harlem's Costco

Update: We just learned this morning from The Daily News that Costco will be selling a bevy of high end goods, such as Cartier watches for a whopping $15,000. Wow!

By HarlemGal
We decided to follow up with our contact at Costco to double confirm they are moving forward with their plans to open on November 12 in East River Plaza. While we had their attention, we requested additional details. Here’s the skinny on Costco in East Harlem:

They are planning to open Thursday at 8:00 AM.

Parking is available at the East River Plaza and it’s $4.00 for the first two hours. Ouch! That’s expensive.

The building is 109,000 square feet. It is actually much smaller than their typical 148,000 square foot facility. As we all know as New Yorkers, location and the amount of space is prime!!! So the fact that this space is smaller should not be a surprise.

Costco is offering a normal selection of Food & Sundries items. However, they are offering a slightly reduced selection of areas such as Hardware, Automotive, Sporting Goods and Housewares. Again as Harlemites, where would we put all this stuff, like hardware? Unless Costco is offering storage!

At this location, Costco will have an expanded selection of Meat, Bakery, Deli and Produce. Hmm, let’s see if any of these areas feature local products.

And last, We inquired about their projections on attendance and revenue. Costco rep replied “I would hope and expect it will be very busy from opening until Christmas…”

I am not sure I would expect much of a selection of local products at Costco. I have had a Costco membership for more than 15 years and have routinely used the ones in Rockland (where I grew up) and Westchester Counties as other locations and don’t recall seeing many local products sold. Remember this is a warehouse club and it has a very different model from other retailers. Costco generally stocks a small selection of items that are sold in bulk quantity. For instance, if you want to buy laundry detergent, Costco typically only stocks a 3 or 4 brands- and each brand is only sold in one size. By stocking only a few brands in limited sizes- it allows Costco to sell more of each one and buy in larger quantities for cheaper prices. If I recall correctly, Costco will not mark a product up more than 15% of their cost. Despite the low mark up (they make their profit on the membership fee) you can sometimes find better deals at a supermarket (although that is much easier to do in the suburbs) because the supermarket will have an item sold as a loss leader to get you in the door. Hopefully the East Harlem Costco will have prices that are close to the prices of the suburban Costco’s. I went to the new BJ’s in the Bronx since I live near 145th in Harlem a few weeks ago. The prices there are higher than what I am accustomed to paying for items in the suburban stores- but cheaper than the Supermarkets in Harlem. If the East Harlem Costco’s prices are too high- I might be tempted to join BJ’s since it’s closer.

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